Disclaimer: I wasn’t paid to review this, I review this on my own free will and nobody put a gun at my puppy head asking me for a review. (oh don’t get any ideas)

If you notice at the side bar, there is an image from Sprout Social, that is because I know some people from Sprout Social and they are amazing people, they were kind enough to give a chance to play around with the tool.

So… Ask me what I think of Sprout social

I like it…

Ask me again what I think of it.

I reaaally like it

Okay ask me what i reaaally think of it.

Okay, if you insist.. here are my unbiased review of what i REALLY think of Sprout Social.

Sprout Social Review

Pros

Affordable –  One thing that makes this tool attractive is the price. I recommend small businesses to try this tool. If you’re wary, there is a 30 days free professional account or business account (not affiliate link, its a tracking link). If you like it, you will only need to pay a small fee of $9.00 a month for a pro account and $49 for business account. All you need to do is sacrifice 3 cups of coffee for a pro account, which is definitely worth the tool seeing what you will get from using this.

Easy and beautiful report – I understand that companies that manage social media accounts for clients are always seeking for report because they have to send to their clients. With sprout social, it will ease your work by a ton as it automatically creates a beautiful and colorful report with your company logo.  So even if you don’t have an eye for design, you’ll still be able to generate a report with a click of a button.

Compare with competitors – You can also compare yourself with a competitor. Comparison will show the number of daily mentions, % engagements, and you’ll also see who’s talking to them and find out if you’re following them or not.

Conversation history – Sometimes it’s through to remember every conversation you had with a customer. With the history function you’ll be able to check past conversation with your customers. What a great way to show your appreciate to a customer by remembering every conversation!

Search – This is definitely a feature that all social management tools has and one of the most important feature in social media. Listening. You’ll be able to search based on location or country.

Customizable inbox – You’ll be able to customize what you want to show in your inbox such as mentions, DM’s, retweets (from the retweet feature from twitter) and new followers. For small businesses, you can thank new followers for following you when they just followed you.

Influential users: Want to know who’s influential? This tool shows you by putting a star symbol in the conversation. Star = Influential. Remember that. This star will be shown on tweets as well as DM’s.

Location Manager – It’s a feature that allows you to find out who checks-in at your location. I don’t use it but I just registered a location to review it. (will update about this soon). What I notice is you’ll be able to find influential people who checks in. More on this soon….

Other features includes

• Scheduling
• RSS (Automatically post when there is an update)

Cons

Certain features are slow – I notice navigating some features is slow. Either that or I have a really crappy internet connection (which I do).

Influencer user search: I think what’s missing is the ability to search for influential users. What I would like to do is insert a keyword, and I’ll be able to find influential users according to sprout social or klout in a particular location.

No Facebook search – I think the Facebook search would be a great additional tool to Sprout Social. This is because Facebook search is really bad. If you think finding a needle in a haystack is tough, try using Facebook search function. However I understand there is a problem with Facebook api’s.

No Mobile app – Mobile will be HUGE in 2012. Currently there is a no mobile app for sprout social yet compared to hootsuite or cotweet for business.

Oh.. There is also no sentiment analysis search at the moment.

Conclusion

Overall, in my honest opinion, sprout social (not affiliate link) is a great product designed for small business owners. The price tag makes it affordable any small business to use and compete with the big guys. Best part is you’ll be able to try it for 30 days free.

How about you? Have you tried Sprout Social yet? I’d love to hear what you think!